Please note: You need to have 'Active content' enabled in your IE browser in order to see the index of articles on this webpage

South Africa Snubs U.S. Effort to Condemn Mugabe

New York Times

By
NEIL MacFARQUHAR and CELIA W. DUGGERPublished: June 20, 2008UNITED
NATIONS - South Africa snubbed an American effort to present a unified front
condemning the Zimbabwe government for fomenting pre-election violence,
sending a low-level representative to a discussion on the issue Thursday led
by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and her counterpart from Burkina
Faso.

The foreign minister of Burkina Faso, Djibril Yipene Bassole, and
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice led a meeting at the United Nations on
the violence in Zimbabwe before its elections.Ms. Rice had called for
the meeting with African nations and Security Council members on the
sidelines of a ministerial session that unanimously passed an
American-sponsored resolution to declare rape and sexual violence a weapon
of war.But after Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, South Africa's minister of foreign
affairs, delivered her speech, she remained in the Security Council chambers
while various other ministers and ambassadors descended two stories to the
45-minute discussion on Zimbabwe. South Africa sent its deputy permanent
representative to the United Nations, but diplomats in the meeting said he
arrived late and did not speak.

Ambassador Dumisani Kumalo, South
Africa's representative to the United Nations, noted that the foreign
minister was here to discuss sexual violence and not Zimbabwe. "What
slight?" he asked. "She got a letter from Secretary Rice saying come and
join me at the meeting on sexual exploitation. That is what she
did."

After the Zimbabwe discussion, Ms. Rice said the participants
wanted "to send a strong message that what is going on in Zimbabwe is simply
unacceptable."

Djibril Yipene Bassole, Burkina Faso's foreign
minister, said that African nations were concerned about both the violence
leading up to the elections and the fallout. "Africa does not need such an
image," he said.

Diplomats in the meeting said the representatives of
various African nations, including Tanzania, Morocco and Kenya, all voiced
support for bringing increased pressure on Zimbabwe to allow fair elections
to proceed in the June 27 run-off vote for president - though the Burkina
Faso minister said it was premature to consider sanctions against
Zimbabwe.

The criticism was echoed by other African officials on
Thursday. Earlier in the day, a group of government ministers from southern
Africa bluntly criticized President Robert Mugabe for the unchecked
political violence in the country, saying there was "every sign" that next
week's presidential run-off election "will never be free nor
fair."

Zimbabwe's neighbors, who rarely criticize Mr. Mugabe publicly,
voiced their increasing impatience with his government just a day after
President Thabo Mbeki of South Africa, the regional mediator, met with Mr.
Mugabe and the opposition standard-bearer, Morgan Tsvangirai, in the latest
effort to ease tensions before the runoff.

The Tanzanian foreign
minister, Bernard Membe, said at a news conference in Dar Es Salaam,
Tanzania's commercial hub, that he and his colleagues would urge their
presidents to "do something urgently so that we can save Zimbabwe," Reuters
reported.

Mr. Membe's statements were remarkable because of Tanzania's
long history of support for Mr. Mugabe in Zimbabwe's liberation struggle.
Tanzania is also the current chair of the African Union, the continent's
highest representative body.

The situation in Zimbabwe seems
increasingly dire. Amnesty International reported Thursday that a dozen
bodies of tortured civilians had been found, and that witnessed described
soldiers threatening villagers with guns while instructing them to vote for
Mr. Mugabe.

Beyond that, the opposition party said Thursday that four
activists had been killed after being abducted near the capital, Harare, and
that the homes of three opposition figures in the same area had been
firebombed. The latest four fatalities, included in Amnesty International's
daily count for Thursday, bring to more than 70 the number of people killed
since the first round of voting in March, according to the
opposition.

Western diplomats here have been repeatedly frustrated by
South Africa's using its two-year seat on the Security Council to deflect
and dilute attempts to criticize Zimbabwe, even wrestling to keep the issue
off the agenda altogether, and often joined by some half-dozen allies
including China, Indonesia and Russia.

Opponents of Security Council
action sometimes question if the situation in Zimbabwe rises to the level of
a threat to international peace and security, which defines the mandate of
the Council, Western diplomats say.

But Liu Zhenmin, China's deputy
permanent representative, denied that his country opposed discussing
Zimbabwe, while Ambassador R. M. Marty Natalegawa of Indonesia stressed that
his country was not backing Mr. Mugabe's government by opposing the
idea.

The United States has met such reluctance to discussing the issue
next week that it may take the rare step of forcing a vote just to get
Zimbabwe on the agenda, one diplomat here said.

Security Council
members are expected to hear from Haile Menkerios, an envoy dispatched by
the secretary general to Zimbabwe, before considering any further
steps.

Neil MacFarquhar reported from the United Nations, and Celia W.
Dugger from Johannesburg.

Zimbabwe death toll reaches 85 as militias step up killings and torture

The death toll from state-sponsored violence ahead of
Zimbabwe's presidential run-off next week has reached at least 85, independent
observers say.

Fourteen killings were reported in a single day yesterday, including four
opposition activists burnt to death in a petrol bombing. Human rights groups
fear the real toll may be far higher, with many opposition supporters believed
to be held in torture camps and police cells, and unidentified bodies being
found every morning.

As the killings have increased, the Mugabe regime that has ruled for 28 years
has faced unprecedented criticism from fellow African leaders. The Tanzanian
Foreign Minister Bernard Membe, head of a regional Southern Africa Development
Community (SADC) observer mission, said it was now impossible for the election
to be "free and fair".

The US Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice, said at a UN security council
meeting on Zimbabwe that "by its actions, the Mugabe regime has given up any
pretence that the 27 June elections will be allowed to proceed in a free and
fair manner" . The UN is not expected to take action at this stage.

African election monitors have publicly questioned the viability of any vote
after their observers witnessed two people being shot dead while they were being
deployed to polling stations.

A day after the South African President, Thabo Mbeki, failed in his attempt
to get Mr Mugabe to delay the vote, Zimbabwe's opposition Movement for
Democratic Change (MDC) confirmed it had come under heavy pressure from its
supporters and officials to pull out of the run-off.

"We have a multiplicity of voices in the party urging us to quit this sham
election," MDC spokesman Nelson Chamisa said. "The party has not yet decided on
such a drastic step but it is something gaining wide attention and discussion
within our ranks."

Mr Chamisa said the MDC was dismayed by the failure of the SADC and the
African Union to take effective measures to rein in the 84- year-old President
and his backers in the police and army. The South African leader's diplomatic
mission, in which he failed to persuade Mr Mugabe to talk to the MDC leader
Morgan Tsvangirai, who beat him by a clear margin in the first round of voting,
has done nothing to alleviate the political crisis.

An influential Zimbabwean politician close to the Mbeki discussions, who did
not want his name used, said: "As long as the so-called mediation is based on
appeasing Mugabe instead of confronting his evil regime head on, nothing is
going to be achieved. It is understandable that some among opposition ranks want
the MDC to pull out. Mugabe has been allowed to create this farce with impunity
by his peers who fail to deal with him decisively."

With Tanzania as current chairman of the African Union, Mr Membe said he and
the foreign ministers of Swaziland and Angola would write to their presidents
"so they do something urgently so we can save Zimbabwe".

SADC is sending 380 monitors to Zimbabwe for the vote. Although Mr Tsvangirai
won the first round, heavily delayed official results purported to show he
failed to get the outright majority needed to avoid a run-off.

The MDC said the four party activists killed overnight were abducted in
Chitungwiza, 15 miles south of the capital, and assaulted with iron bars, clubs
and guns. Witnesses said that the victims were forced on to trucks and taken
away by militias chanting Zanu-PF slogans.

A further 11 killings were recorded by civil society groups including that of
Abigail Chiroto, the wife of the MDC mayor-elect of Harare. She and her
four-year-old son, Ashley, were seized at their Harare home on Monday night. The
boy, who was left at a nearby police station, said he saw his mother being
blindfolded and taken into the bush.

Britain has warned the security and military establishment in Zimbabwe that
"they are playing with fire" by allowing the political violence to escalate.
"They are digging their own graves," said Lord Malloch- Brown, the Foreign
Office minister for Africa, who suggested that existing sanctions against Mr
Mugabe and his "hard men" could be widened and deepened after the election.
"They will never be able to travel or hold bank accounts outside Zimbabwe, they
will lose the ability to send their children to school outside the country. They
will be trapped in Zimbabwe."

If Mr Mugabe does manage to steal the election, "it will be by such egregious
theft and intimidation that the international community, and neighbouring
countries, will see that this is without legitimacy and act accordingly", he
said.

Lord Malloch-Brown predicted that Mr Tsvangirai could still secure a "big
win" from Zimbabweans who have refused to be cowed by the continuing
intimidation and harassment. But he also said that the MDC leader would be
expected to share power even in case of a convincing victory. "But with a solid
win, he would be able to govern on his own terms."

A day in the life of Mugabe's violent regime

* Four MDC activists were abducted in Chitungwiza yesterday by Zanu-PF
supporters and killed in an attack with iron bars, clubs and guns. Amnesty
International says that a total 12 people were tortured to death after being
abducted by Zanu-PF militias around Zimbabwe yesterday.

* Emmanuel Chiroto, MDC mayor-elect of Harare, described how the body of his
murdered wife, Abigai,was hard to identify because her head had been smashed by
a blunt instrument. Mrs Chiroto was abducted on Monday with her son, four. The
boy was later released unhurt.

* The MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai has been denied a new passport, his party
said. His deputy, Tendai Biti, appeared in court yesterday, accused of
subverting the government.

* The UN said a human rights senior official had been expelled without
explanation after meeting aid workers and UN human rights
workers.

Mbeki's 'routine failure'

IOL

June 20 2008 at
06:09AM

By Basildon Peta, Peter Fabricius and Siyabonga
Mkhwanazi

Zimbabwe's main opposition Movement for Democratic Change
(MDC) is considering pulling out of next week's presidential run-off
election after President Mbeki failed to persuade President Robert Mugabe to
call it off.

Mbeki met Mugabe and MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai in
Zimbabwe on Wednesday to discuss the election contest between
them.

Well-informed sources say Mbeki tried to persuade them to
call off the poll because the rising tide of pre-election violence already
made it impossible for it to be free and fair.

He instead
proposed that Zanu-PF and the MDC together form a transitional government of
national unity to prepare the ground for peaceful and credible elections
later.

Tsvangirai agreed but Mugabe did not, the sources
said.

Mbeki also failed to persuade Mugabe to meet Tsvangirai to
address the crisis. The MDC leader had been willing to do so.

Sources said Mbeki wasn't giving up. "He (Mbeki) is convinced the run-off
will not help in resolving the crisis and has made that point very clear. He
has warned that the run-off might in fact exacerbate the
situation.

"He thus prefers a Kenya-style power-sharing pact
instead of the run-off, but it's already too late for that," said one
authoritative official close to Mbeki's initiative, who did not want to be
named.

An influential Zimbabwean politician close to the
discussions said: "It was one of Mbeki's routine failures. As long as the
so-called mediation is based on appeasing Mugabe instead of confronting his
evil regime head-on, nothing is ever going to be achieved."

MDC
national spokesperson Nelson Chamisa said Mugabe had made a number of recent
statements which confirmed his resolve to disregard the people's will in
next week's election.

Last week, Mugabe said he would not sacrifice
Zimbabwe's hard-won independence on the altar of a "mere X on a ballot". He
has also repeatedly warned he would start a war if the opposition
won.

"What therefore is the point of this election? Why should we
participate in it? Many of our members are now wondering and want us to pull
out," said Chamisa.

He said that with at least 70 MDC members
murdered and thousands more brutally assaulted and hounded from their
villages, it was not possible for the MDC to campaign
effectively.

The party had launched a court application against the
state media's refusal to accept its election ads.

Also, local
observers and monitors are to be strictly curtailed, with Justice Minister
Patrick Chinamasa saying only 10 000 of the 50 000 who had applied would be
accredited.

After a fact-finding mission to Zimbabwe this week,
Independent Democrats leader Patricia de Lille said: "What is needed now is
for Mbeki to go back to the Southern African Development Community leaders
and inform them that 'my effort has failed - what do we do
next?'

"The outcome of the election is not the problem; it is the
transition from one government to the next which is the greatest
challenge.

"Mugabe will refuse to hand over power, whatever the
outcome of the election. Only a negotiated settlement before June 27 can
solve the Zimbabwean crisis," De Lille added.

Mbeki's
spokesperson, Mukoni Ratshitanga, confirmed that Mbeki had met Mugabe and
Tsvangirai but remained tight-lipped about the nature and outcome of the
talks.

Meanwhile, US ambassador James McGee believes a million
Zimbabweans will flee to neighbouring countries no matter what the outcome
of the run-off, writes Hans Pienaar.

McGee was addressing the
Centre for International Political Studies at the University of Pretoria on
Thursday.

The mass exodus would be prompted by the "planned
stealing" of the election by Mugabe and by the dire food shortage in
Zimbabwe.

Compounding this was the government's decision to suspend
operations by NGOs, including those providing humanitarian
assistance.

Saying he was tired of being diplomatic, McGee said
there was a direct link between the Zimbabwean crisis and the recent
xenophobic attacks in South Africa.

The envoy added that "at a
basic level" there was no government in Zimbabwe anymore.

"According to Zimbabwean law, the parliament was dissolved before the March
29 elections. The newly elected parliament has never been convened.

"We now have the situation of a regime claiming to be represented by
'ministers' not appointed by any parliament," McGee noted.

Meanwhile, Sapa-AFP reports that deputy MDC leader Tendai Biti was on
Thursday charged in court with subversion and election-rigging - offences
that could carry the death penalty on conviction.

Other charges
accuse him of "publishing or communicating false statements prejudicial to
the state" and "causing disaffection among defence forces".

He
is also accused of "undermining authority or insulting the president" and
"projecting the president as an evil man" who should be tried for crimes
against humanity.

This article was originally published on page
1 of The Star on June 20, 2008

Case
for Biti release collapses

HARARE - Efforts to secure Tendai Biti's release from
custody through engagement of the acting Attorney General, Bharat Patel,
collapsed yesterday afternoon following Patel's refusal to commit himself to
the bail plea.

Lawyers representing the MDC secretary general told The
Zimbabwe Times that their meeting with Patel yielded no favourable result,
forcing them to seek solace in the courts.

Initially, there had been
an agreement between the state and defence counsel to release Biti on bail
without going through the normal court process but the deal hit the rocks as
Patel refused to be part of the bargaining process.

Lewis Uriri, the
leader of the defence team said Thursday: "We went to Patel's office this
afternoon to seek his commitment on the bail issue. We had earlier been
given an assurance that Patel would simply agree to the deal that would have
seen Biti being granted bail but that was not to be as Patel refused flatly
to grant our client the request.

"This means that we now have to go
through the same court process that will drag for some time to seek his
release on bail," said Uriri.

In the morning, Uriri, appearing before
Mishrod Guvamombe laid before the court, 11 complaints that his client had
leveled against the police, saying the complaints presented a grim picture
of the manner in which Biti was treated at the hands of the
police.

The treatment, he said, destroyed the morale of his client and
his resolve to fight for democracy in Zimbabwe.

He further said that
his client had been treated like a "serious criminal with no rights and
dignity.

"It is my respectful submission that the form and context of my
client's arrest and subsequent detention was calculated to cause extreme
shock, trauma, and horror and indeed to emotionally break down the spirit of
the accused," he said.

He also said Biti had been quizzed by 24
police officers during his 19-hour interrogation in which he was asked
"questions that had nothing to do with the charges laid against my
client."

"The police officers questioned him about his personal views
regards the SADC mediation and the reasons for its failures, why there was
need for a government of national unity, as well as his preferences regards
the models of the state," Uriri said.

Biti, the defence counsel said,
was also asked to disclose the contents of the negotiations between Zanu-PF
and the MDC stretching as far back as June 11 2008 - questions which Uriri
said were meant to confuse his clients.

"The interrogation was
protracted, sustained, extensive and intensive - all aimed at breaking down
my client's spirit and emotion. He was not given food or water in the first
48 hours of his arrest and it was after the intervention of the legal team
that food was first allowed to reach him," Uriri said.

Biti, the
lawyer said, was forced to sleep on the floor without blankets on the first
night of his detention.

Given the "gravity" of the allegations, Guvamombe
ordered that police should investigate the complaints and present a written
report within 14 days.

"This court takes note of complaints presented to
it by the defence counsel and therefore orders the police to conduct an
intensive investigation into the allegations against the police. The report
detailing the findings should be presented to this court in the next 14
days," Guvamombe said.

Matinenga's
wife detained - by Zanu-PF

RUSAPE - Miriam Matinenga arrived at Rusape Prison, as she
has done over the lunch hour every day over the past week, to visit her
imprisoned husband, Advocate Eric Matinenga.

The prison cells are
located at the back of the local police station.

Matinenga was not unduly
concerned by the unusual presence of a crowd of people that milled around
the police station as she approached. That was until people in the group
accosted her as she approached the police station entrance.

It turned
out they were Zanu-PF supporters lying in wait for her. The small town of
Rusape, second largest in Manicaland Province, has been the epicenter of an
upsurge of political violence over the past week, targeting mostly
supporters of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC).

"This is the
woman," a woman shouted at Matinenga in anger while pushing her back. "You
are the one who brought the white people here."

Matinenga who has been
grieving over her husband's ordeal since he was elected to Parliament
representing the MDC in Buhera West Constituency about 100 kilometers
south-west of Rusape, was not quite prepared to her own ordeal.

The
group followed behind her, shouting obscenities at her as she was half
pushed and half dragged to a residential property in the
neighbourhood.

"They held her for an hour," the Matinenga's daughter,
Tafadzwa, said after she spoke to her mother on the phone from Atlanta,
Georgia, in the United States. The last time she saw her parents was in May,
2007 when they attended her wedding in the city.

"They harassed her
all the time. They said they would kill her."

It latter turned out that
unknown to her mother, visitors from the Netherlands had arrived at Rusape
Police Station that morning and requested to see the jailed
advocate.

"When my mother visited the police station at the normal
visiting time there was a group of Zanu-PF supporters waiting," said
Tafadzwa. "They took her to a house in the neighbourhood. They started to
harass her, accusing her of bringing white people to the police
station."

Threatened with death Matinenga left Rusape for Harare soon
afterwards. Her first encounter with the violence and unruliness now
prevailing in the eastern districts of Zimbabwe was on the day her husband
was arrested at the Buhera Police Station where he had visited to see
clients in custody there.

Not only was he denied access to the clients,
he was himself arrested and detained on unspecified charges. His car was
impounded. Miriam who had accompanied her husband on the trip was forced to
hitch-hike the 250 kilometres back to Harare through violence-ridden
territory. The police ignored a High Court order to release
him.

Zimbabwe National Army soldiers and Zanu-PF militiamen have declared
an unofficial dusk-to-dawn curfew over Rusape.

Last week they herded
the local population to an open field and spoke unequivocally.

"Your
vote is your bullet," a soldier told the terrified crowd. A young woman
explained to journalists afterwards.

"They are saying we will die if we
don't vote for Robert Mugabe, that there will be war if we don't vote for
Robert Mugabe," she said.

Rusape, the home town of the Minister of State
Security, Didymus Mutasa, Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa and losing
presidential candidate, Simba Makoni, has witnessed an orgy of killing. None
of the three politicians has raised a voice in protest, not even at the
illegal incarceration of one of Zimbabwe's best legal minds.

Zanu-PF
seizes Bulawayo council farm

BULAWAYO - Zanu -PF has allocated plots to 3 000 people on
Bellevue Farm, which belongs to Bulawayo City Council, in a controversial
move seen as a desperate vote-buying gimmick by the party ahead of the
run-off.

A woman, who only identified herself as Kandemiri, an official
in the Zanu-PF Women's League in the Bulawayo province, is personally
vetting people wishing to obtain the plots and allocating them.

She
is said to have disregarded the advice of Bulawayo City Council and moved
ahead to allocate plots, banking on political support.

Kandemiri is
allocating the peri-urban plots, measuring about 1,5 hectares to the people
and has since christened the informal agro-residential area, Emganwini
East.

During a visit
to the illegal settlement on Wednesday the invaders were observed while
using fire to clear their plots while others were building
huts.

Kandemiri said although the Bulawayo City Council refused to
co-operate with her in surveying the land, servicing and sub-dividing it
before allocating plots to people, it was a Zanu-PF decision, which could
not be blocked.

"Yes, this is our land," she said. "We have taken over
the farm and our people are already starting to clear their plots and
setting up houses. We have given plots to about 3 020 people who are
desperate for land to build homes."

The government acquired Bellevue
Farm from its previous white owner in 2005 and allocated it to Bulawayo City
Council to cater for the local authority's future expansion
programmes.

The farm was supposed to be used for organised peri-urban
farming but before the local authority could move in to survey and
sub-divide the plots and allocate them, Zanu-PF has grabbed it.

While
Zanu-PF supporters have generally invaded white-owned farms under President
Robert Mugabe's often-chaotic land-seizure campaign, they tended to avoid
black-owned properties or farms owned by local authorities.

However, as
the party escalates its campaign for the presidential election run-off
scheduled for next Friday, Zanu -PF is using every trick in the book in a
desperate bid to ensure that its candidate, Robert Mugabe recovers from his
first round defeat by Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) leader, Morgan
Tsvangirai.

Tsvangirai beat Mugabe by clinching 47.9 percent of the vote
to the octogenarian leader's 43 percent, both failing to garner 50 percent
of the vote to avoid a run-off.

In addition to violently attacking
MDC supporters countrywide and using food aid in rural areas as a political
weapon, the party has vastly increased civil servants'
salaries.

Bulawayo City Council Acting Town Clerk, Gilbert Dube confirmed
the invasion but did not want to commit himself to commenting further on the
touchy subject.

"There is something like that on one of the farms
that the government allocated to the city council," he said. "But I am not
the person who is directly handling that matter. Speak to (the Director of
Housing and Community Services, Isaiah) Magagula."

When contacted,
Magagula refused to comment. Kandemiri boasted that although the police
attempted to evict the settlers, they resisted because senior Zanu-PF
officials supported the invasion.

According to well-placed sources close to the unfolding drama,
the two Zanu-PF heavyweights are both aware that they are favourites of
Mugabe as likely successors and have wasted no time in seeking to out-do
each other in efforts to secure the endorsement of the embattled veteran
Zanu-PF leader.

Gono and Chombo are currently locked in mortal conflict
over control of the large number of buses that President Mugabe donated to
various districts in the dying hours of the campaign for the March 29
harmonised elections. The 285 buses were acquired by Fiscor, a subsidiary
established by the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) to undertake its
quasi-fiscal operations. Each province was supposed to receive an allocation
of 25 of the 20-seater buses.

Some of the rural constituencies accepted
the buses but went on to vote for the Movement for Democratic Change and its
president, Morgan Tsvangirai, thus denying both Mugabe and Zanu-PF their
vote for the first time since Independence.

“After the acquisition of
the buses, the RBZ Governor was reluctant to release the buses to Ignatius
Chombo’s Ministry of Local Government under which ZUPCO falls. He didn’t
want Chombo to take credit for this important strategy of the Zanu-PF
campaign,” said one source close to the conflict. He declined to be
identified.

The source said Gono’s intention had been that the central
bank would manage the fleet of buses through Fiscor. He however grudgingly
handed over the buses to ZUPCO under pressure from Chombo, who logically
argued for management by ZUPCO, the recognised transport
operator.

Gono, has, however, continued to fight to regain control of the
buses. He recently castigated ZUPCO publicly for failing to manage the buses
in line with the vision of the Government. Seeking to curry favours with
traditional chiefs, Gono told a recent meeting with them that the RBZ was
now seeking to withdraw the buses in order to to replace them with lorries
and pick-up trucks to transport agricultural inputs to rural farmers and
their harvested crops to the market.

This criticism of ZUPCO by Gono
did not go down well with the ZUPCO board that convened a meeting over the
issue two weeks ago at which they resolved to ask Chombo to express their
displeasure with Gono for trying to win favours with the President at their
own expense.

The ZUPCO board is headed by Dr. Chipo Dyanda, a Chombo
loyalist who lectured with the minister at the University of Zimbabwe before
he became a politician. Another Zanu-PF politician, Mabel Chinomona who won
the Mutoko North parliamentary seat in March, also sits on the ZUPCO
board.

Both Dyanda and Chinomona refused to comment while the ZUPCO
public relations department merely confirmed that the board met two weeks
ago and referred further questions to Dyanda.′′This is not the first clash
between Gono and Chombo. The central bank governor was the chief architect
of the prosecution of former ZUPCO chief executive officer Bright Matonga on
allegations of corruptly benefiting from an inducement of US$3 000 per bus
when ZUPCO acquired new buses.

Also accused was ZUPCO chairman
Charles Nherera a former vice-chancellor of Chinhoyi University. Both
officials were alleged to have corruptly benefited from inducements paid by
bus supplier Jayesh Shah of Gift Investments.

Nherera was convicted and
jailed. Though Chombo was not charged, the case put him in very bad light in
Zanu-PF circles. Matonga was acquitted and appointed Deputy Minister of
Information soon afterwards.Gono, who is related to the First Lady, Grace
Mugabe – both of them hail from the Chikomba District - has openly
campaigned for the beleaguered President Mugabe ahead of the presidential
election re-run scheduled for June 27.

He has promised to fulfill
government’s pledge to spend lavishly on the traditional chiefs and headman
in return for their support for Mugabe’s candidature.

To offset the
impact of a largely failed rural electrification programme, the traditional
leaders have been promised diesel power generators to light up their rural
homes. Zimbabweans in the urban areas have experienced regular power
blackouts as a result of electricity shortages.

Also to be distributed
are 3 000 grinding mills and a similar number of beasts. The strategy is to
coerce the traditional leaders to persuade the rural electorate to vote for
Mugabe as he battles to overturn his defeat by Morgan Tsvangirai, leader of
the MDC. This strategy failed to deliver the votes in March much to the
chagrin of Mugabe.

Gono has constantly been accused by the MDC of
colluding with Zanu-PF by bankrolling its elections campaign while using
public funds.

Just before the March elections, Gono distributed hundreds
of tractors, a variety of farm machinery and equipment, diesel and ancillary
equipment to Zanu-PF loyalists and brand new cars among striking
doctors.Mugabe and Zanu-PF still lost the elections after all these
inducements. This partly explains Mugabe’s anger and the campaign of
retributive violence even before the presidential election results were
publicly announced.

Gono promised the traditional leaders a key role in
the distribution of agricultural inputs as an added incentive.

“From
now on you are governors, as you will be working with your governor,
assisting him with this micro-credit project which cannot be spearheaded by
the governor alone,” Gono told chiefs and headmen gathered at their annual
congress in Zimbabwe’s second largest city, Bulawayo. Gono always refers to
himself as “your governor”.

The grinding mills will be distributed to
the chiefs for the benefit of their communities, he said, adding that
government had acquired book, candle and soap making machines as well as oil
presses for distribution among the rural folk in order to empower them.
While he finances these acquisitions, Gono has also been accused of oiling
Zanu-PF’s machinery of violence.

Chiefs, most of whom have already been
allocated pick-up trucks and tractors as part of a government initiative to
retain their loyalty, will now receive 200 litres of fuel a month as part of
their package.Out of the 266 substantive traditional chiefs, a total of 251
are now the proud owners of a pick-up truck and tractor each.

Some of
the more enterprising among them are said to be using their newly acquired
trucks and tractors to transport villagers for a fee in areas where bus
companies have withdrawn services because roads are in a state of
disrepair.

On effort and enterprise alone Gono is way ahead of Chombo
in the presidential succession stakes. So is he on appropriate networking.
But then, Chombo is effectively the boss of all the chiefs.

ZANU PF
to use Biti as ransom

The arrest of MDC’s Tendai Biti and putting ten newly elected Members
of Parliament including MDC’s Treasurer and Tsvangirai’s confidant Elton
Mangoma on a wanted list is an attempt by ZANU-PF to achieve the upper hand
in deciding who will hold sway in the composition of a proposed government
of national unity (GNU).

South Africa’s President Thabo Mbeki arrived
in Zimbabwe on 18 June and held meetings with both parties.According to
senior members of both ZANU-PF and MDC, the only point of contention in
setting up a GNU was who would assume overall leadership. Mugabe’s contempt
for MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai, who polled more support than Mugabe in the
first round of presidential voting, is common knowledge.

A ZANU-PF source
told United Nations’s IRIN that Mbeki spoke of the advantages of a GNU in
separate meetings with both parties, while also calling for the cessation of
hostilities.

But after the discovery on 19 June of the bodies of five
murdered MDC activists in and around the capital, Harare, Mbeki’s plea for
an end to the violence appears to have fallen on deaf ears.

“Now it’s
about 70 we’ve lost,” MDC spokesman Nelson Chamisa told local media,
referring to the number of MDC supporters the party claims have been killed
since the 29 March election, in which ZANU-PF lost control of parliament for
the first time since independence in 1980.

With the 27 June presidential
run-off imminent, Tanzanian foreign minister Bernard Membe reportedly said
on 19 June: “According to SADC, there are fears that there will be no free
and fair elections in Zimbabwe, due to the prevailing political and economic
situation in that country.”

SADC, which has given previous Zimbabwean
elections a clean bill of health despite the misgivings of other observer
missions, said it would increase the number of its observers to 400, but
according to Zambian Foreign Affairs minister Kabinga Pande, only 210 were
on the ground by 19 June.

The post-election violence since the 29 March
poll is leading to a growing number of calls for the run-off election to be
cancelled in favour of a negotiated settlement.

“As ZANU-PF, we feel
that President Mugabe should be the leader of such a formation (GNU), given
his history as a founder-leader. Making him a subordinate of Morgan
Tsvangirai, the leader of the MDC, would be disrespectful. An acceptable
solution would be the Kenyan compromises, whereby the head of state would
remain in power while the position of prime minister can be created for
Tsvangirai,” a ZANU-PF source told IRIN.

ZANU-PF officials told IRIN, on
condition of anonymity, that threats of war, murder, abduction and mass
arrests of the opposition leadership and party members were designed to
break their spirits and make them “very eager to form a GNU”.

“For
your own information,” an MDC official told IRIN, “when the
secretary-general of the MDC, Tendai Biti, was arrested, he had just
attended a meeting with his counterparts in ZANU-PF on a possible GNU.
ZANU-PF is using all tactics in the book to ensure that Mugabe wins the
run-off, which would give him moral authority to form a GNU.”

Biti
was arrested last week after returning from South Africa and is facing
treason charges, which carry the death penalty.

The MDC official said
Biti and eight other MDC legislators on the government’s wanted list could
be used as bargaining chips in the make-up of the GNU.

Further doubts
about the freedom and fairness of the upcoming run-off poll were expressed
on 18 June by the Pan African Parliament Observer Team, one of the few other
electoral observer missions permitted by Mugabe’s government to oversee the
ballot.

The head of the Pan African observer mission, Marwick Khumalo,
told journalists at a media briefing that “Beating the drums of war is not
acceptable … When people make statements which are derogatory and
inflammatory, they would know that they can incite other people into being
violent.”

Beating the drums of war is not acceptable … When people
make statements which are derogatory and inflammatory, they would know that
they can incite other people into being violent

At a rally in
Mashonaland West Province on 16 June, Mugabe warned: “You decide for
yourselves: to vote for war, or vote for people who work for the development
of the country.”

Responding to reports that members of the armed services
had cast postal ballots under the supervision of their senior officers,
Khumalo said he had requested a meeting with the Zimbabwe Electoral
Commission (ZEC) to express their concerns, but “What we have received is a
letter apologising that they cannot attend or respond to our invitation for
a meeting.”

“They have now invited us to a meeting, together with other
observers, on June 23,” he said.

The observer team visited trouble
spots and on one occasion met a man displaced by the violence after his wife
had been killed with an axe by assailants, and her body
buried.

Khumalo said, “It is honestly regrettable that violence has
resurfaced in this manner. Instead of concentrating on observing a smooth
election, violence has come top of the agenda, where we now have to observe
and investigate and, as you know, investigating is
time-consuming.”

Haile Mankerios, UN assistant secretary-general for
political affairs, arrived in Zimbabwe on 17 June and after a meeting with
Mugabe told journalists: “I am here to find out what measures are being put
in place to ensure there is a free, fair and transparent run-off, and what
we as the UN can do to support Zimbabwe.”

But a government official
told The Herald, that “Mankerios is here to assess Zimbabwe’s technical
capacity to hold the election, following a meeting between President Mugabe
and the UN Secretary-General in Rome.”

Biti charged with Mugabe's crimes

HARARE (Sapa-AFP) - Zimbabwe
deputy opposition leader Tendai Biti was charged in court Thursday with
subversion and election rigging -- offences that could carry the death
penalty on conviction.

Prosecutor Florence Ziyambi read a list of four
charges out in court, including "subverting a constitutional government as
defined in the criminal law."

"The onus is on the accused to prove
that he has no connection with the public violence that is happening in the
country," she said.

Citing documents authorities accuse Biti of
authoring, Ziyambi said "the public violence, the rigging of elections was
as a result" of them.

"They are alleging that the president is a criminal
since they want to take him to The Hague," she said, referring to the
documents and the International Criminal Court.

Prosecutors have
opposed bail for Biti, secretary general of the opposition Movement for
Democratic Change (MDC), since "the accused is facing serious offences which
attract capital punishment," court papers show.

A court hearing was
scheduled for Friday, when the magistrate in the case is to decide whether
to keep the charges or throw them out.

Biti's lawyer Hapious Zhou
contended in court that the documents prosecutors were basing the charges on
were forged, calling them "a photocopy of a photocopy."

"There is not
even an attempt to simulate the accused's signature," he said.

Biti was arrested one week ago, minutes after
arriving back in Zimbabwe following a long stay in South Africa, and has
been held in prison since then.

The charges also include accusations
of having "incited and conspired ... to rig" the March 29 first round of the
election and of having offered bribes ranging from three billion to 50
billion Zimbabwean dollars.

Soaring inflation in Zimbabwe makes it
impossible to estimate how much the currency is now worth, but the official
inflation is put at 165,000 percent. Thursday conversion rates would have
set the higher figure as equivalent to around five euros or seven
dollars.

The bribery led to "massive election rigging," according to the
charges.

Other charges accuse Biti of "publishing or communicating false
statements prejudicial to the state" and "causing disaffection among defence
forces."

According to police, he is also accused of "undermining
authority or insulting the president" and "projecting the president as an
evil man"who should be tried for crimes against humanity.

The charges
stem from documents authorities say he authored that allegedly discussed a
plot to fix the elections as well as planned changes to the military if the
opposition would come to power.

Why the Transitional
Document is a clear forgery

The so-called Transitional Document allegedly authored by Tendai Biti
dated the 25th March 2008 requires comment. Of particular significance to me is
the part that covers ‘Judicial Transformation’ on page 9. It mentions my name as
one of the judges that is perceived to be one of those who will be engaged in
the so-called judicial transformation.

Transforming the judiciary of my country to serve the
rights and liberties of the suffering Zimbabwean people will undoubtedly be a
big honor to me. I will take it with passion, humility and utmost
dedication.

I cannot however remain silent when the current
Zimbabwean authorities peddle falsehoods as are contained in the so-called
Transitional Document. I find it unconscionable for the author who wrote this
document to mention my name in order to justify torture of good people like
Advocate Eric Matinenga and Mr. Tendai Biti. I find it really disgraceful when a
government decides to invent a fiction so as to further its own
interests.

Adv. Eric Matinenga is an advocate. He takes his
instructions from law firms and not from their clients. I would not in the
normal course of being represented by him establish contact with him except
through the lawyers who I had instructed. The way the legal system works is that
I instruct a lawyer who in turn briefs counsel like Mr. Matinenga. Any direct
communication with him on my part is thus irregular unless it is done through my
instructing legal practitioner. The suggestion that Mr. Matinenga has been in
touch with me is therefore false and incorrect.

I have not known Mr. Matinenga before as an ardent
politician before his election to parliament. His communication with me would
not therefore be on the political front. It is difficult to imagine in what
capacity he would contact me. He is a Member of Parliament like many other
lawyers like Gutu, Gonese, Coltart, Mushonga, Mwonzora and Matutu among others.
He has not been appointed the Minister of Justice and I do not think the MDC has
come round to decide who shall be in its Cabinet. It is therefore clear this is
a falsehood, which cannot be left unchallenged.

I am also concerned about the noticeable absence of
legal expression and knowledge in the document. The document uses an expression
like “Justices of the Bench”. Judges and lawyers all over the world DO NOT
express themselves that way when referring to Judges. They use the expression
“Judges of the High Court” or of the Supreme Court, and never as Justices of the
Bench. Judges are not justices or judges of the Bench. Rather, they are judges
of the Court they preside over. This is the kind of language a student of law
will know while still at Law School. Mr. Biti would undoubtedly be way above
that level. I know Mr. Biti best as a lawyer, who appeared before me many times.
I would rate him as one of the best lawyers the country has at the moment. He
would not use that kind of expression when referring to judges of the Superior
Courts. The document as a whole lacks the legal flavor that Mr. Biti would
normally give it.

The document also lacks legal sense in other respects
e.g. that Mr. Morgan Tsvangirai has talked to Judge Fergus Blackie. Judge
Blackie is a retired judge who has completed his service and who is unlikely to
be persuaded to come back to the Bench. He is someone who would not be a sitting
judge in a free and democratic Zimbabwe. He would be expected to be enjoying his
retirement working as and when he chooses. He was not “unceremoniously”
dismissed as the document suggests, but he retired when his time on the Bench
was up. The vindictive humiliation he was subjected to by Chinamasa when he was
arrested in 2002 happened just after he had taken retirement.

The same is the case with Judge Anthony Gubbay. He is
also a retired judge and his time would have been up as of now, despite the fact
that Chinamasa forced him into retirement six months before he was due. I am
told that on retirement he declined some prestigious appointments in the Region,
opting instead to relax and spend his time on what he deemed best for himself
and his family. It would appear a significant number of lawyers in Zimbabwe are
aware of that fact. Why would Mr. Tsvangirai in the name of logic and common
sense go after retired judges when there are so many other judges littered all
over the world who would love to go back home.

Clearly therefore, this document which forms the
basis of charges against Mr. Biti is totally discredited and judicial officers
and magistrates in Zimbabwe must not act as if they do not see it. It does not
need a good lawyer to convince me that Mr. Biti has no case to answer. I have
been through this road before and it is time for my fellow judges and
magistrates in Zimbabwe to shame it and end it. Advocate Matinenga is being
punished for the good work he has done for many people including Tsvangirai and
many others including myself. He and Mr. Tendai Biti do not deserve what they
are going through. I join those who are calling for their immediate and
unconditional release. Their harassment must end now.

I was happy yesterday when Kofi Annan talking of the
duty on the government of Zimbabwe to protect its people, espoused his
well-articulated doctrine on the responsibility to protect. I hoped he would
argue as he did when he was Secretary-General of the need to pierce the veil of
sovereignty, which Mugabe loves to often hide behind, now that there is no doubt
that humanitarian, economic and political crises are part of the essence of
Zimbabwe.

Violence
worse than Kenya-Observer

An observer monitoring the run-off election has said the violence
in Zimbabwe is now worse than Kenya,and warned his observer group will not
endorse the out come of the election,he added that even if the violence
subsides now,its a little too late and the only option is for it to called
off completely.Speaking on condition of anonymity, she says it is clear
the government is behind the violence and the police are not arresting ZANU
PF supporters who attack anybody they suspect to be loyal to the Movement
for Democratic Change (MDC).

“During the day the situation looks
normal. But when evening comes, the militia supporting the ruling ZANU-PF
will just pick anybody they suspect to be a member of the opposition for a
beating. Sometimes they will just pick members of a family and beat or even
kill them. It is even worse that they seem to have adopted a system of
amputation. They just chop off people’s hands,” she says.

She added
that sometimes the MDC retaliates citing incidences where the opposition
will fight back after one of their own has been attacked or vice versa.But
when police come they arrest the MDC members who were attacked,they even
arrest some people who had nothing to do with the violence.

In
Harare, she says, they only see people wearing ZANU-PF T-shirts while in the
rural areas, the observers witness people’s houses being burned down. “In
Mashonaland and Manicaland, we have come across houses that were burned
down. Travelling in rural areas is dangerous because you will come across a
roadblock mounted by the militia and you have to explain to them what you
are going to do in their territory. You will also come across police
roadblocks every five kilometres,” she explains. She says that in most
cases, soldiers go to rural areas in plain clothes.

“There is open
evidence that the government is sponsoring the crackdown,our group will not
endorse the outcome of this election,it has to be to be cancelled before
there is more bloodshed,but the people are adamant that the elections should
go on because some even those who voted for ZANU PF in first round are
silently holding their guns.” she noted.

Lupane
MDC MP abducted

Kenneth Mhlanga,the MDC shadow MP for Lupane East has just been
arrested in Lupane and the vehicle he was using had been impounded. No
charges as yet. He is MDC campaign manager for Lupane East.On Saturday,
Farai Chozi a councilor for Dete and his son were arrested for handing out
flyers. The flyers were the presidents letter to the people. The son was let
go but Farai has not. He is being charged with handing out subversive
literature.

Tosi Sansole the MDC MP for Hwange East and former Victoria
Falls mayor has had all his meetings cancelled by the police. No was reason
given.

ZANU PF militia attacked the councillor for ward 10 in Chiredzi,
Wilson Mabhoko, he has had his legs and ears cut off and is in Silveira
Hospital.

The government crackdown on MDC officials is escalating,as of
Friday 7 MDC House of Assembly and Senate elects have been
arrested.

Kagame
likens Zimbabwe to Rwanda

KIGALI - Rwandan President, Paul Kagame, has joined the
growing number of international leaders condemning President Robert Mugabe
for the political violence now engulfing Zimbabwe.

Kagame accused
fellow African leaders for not doing anything to help solve the crisis
inside Zimbabwe. He said African leaders have let down the people of
Zimbabwe.

"There is a failure by African countries to support the process
in Zimbabwe," Kagame told journalists in Kigali, Rwanda's capital. "The
first impression is that there are some serious problems."

Kagame was
speaking during his regular meetings with members of the local and
international media at Village Urugwiro on Wednesday.

Kagame seized power
in 1994 after his then rebel forces stormed Kigali to end 100 days of
blood-letting which left almost one million Rwandans dead. Most of those
killed were from the Tutsi minority ethnic group. Kagame is a
Tutsi.

Before the genocide, which is blamed on the previous hardliner
Hutu government, international human rights groups had warned the situation
inside Rwanda was deteriorating and heading towards genocide. The calls were
largely ignored only for the world to be shocked when television footage of
machete-wielding militants mercilessly butchering people were shown around
the world.

Recently Romeo Dallaire, the Canadian soldier who led a
depleted United Nations peacekeeping mission in Rwanda just before the
genocide, told a workshop on peace and security in Pretoria, South Africa
that the situation in Zimbabwe and the Darfur Region was similar to that of
Rwanda during the pre-genocide era.

In Kigali, Kagame said
Zimbabweans should also take the initiative to help solve the problems
facing their country.

"The problem cannot be solved by outsiders, but
Zimbabweans themselves should be seen to be trying to solve their own
problems," Kagame said.

Kagame said the presidential run-off slated for
June 27 was unlikely to be held in a free and fair environment because of
the violence inside Zimbabwe and the threats of war being issued by Mugabe
and his followers.

"It does not need a genius to understand that free and
fair elections can be hard to contemplate in the current situation," Kagame
said.

Kagame spoke as Kenyan Prime Minister Raila Odinga also raised
similar concerns saying Mugabe was now a huge embarrassment to the African
continent. Odinga said Zimbabwe "remains an eyesore on the African
continent".

"It is a big embarrassment that a leader can say on the
eve of an election that he's not willing to hand over power to an opponent,
and he can only hand over power to a member of his own political party,"
Odinga said during a meeting with US secretary of State Condoleeza Rice. "I
think this is an embarrassment to Africa because it makes a sham of the
presidential elections.

"You cannot have free and fair elections when
opponents are being beaten up, when the secretary-general of the party,
opposition party, is in detention, and [on] very flimsy charges, possibly to
be charged with treason. So my view is that the time has come for the
international community to act on Zimbabwe."

Annan should have been tougher on Mugabe

Financial Times

Published:
June 20 2008 03:00 | Last updated: June 20 2008 03:00

From Mr Richard C.
Hoffnung.

Sir, Kofi Annan has spoken out against the violence and
intimidation being carried out by Robert Mugabe's regime against the
opposition in Zimbabwe but, in all likelihood, not loudly enough ("A fair
Zimbabwe poll is not enough", June 18). Unless one is credulous enough to
believe the ruling party's propaganda to the effect that all western news
reports are merely fabricated in order to restore white colonialism, it
should now be clear that the arrests, beatings, denial of food, torture and
killings of hundreds of ordinary opposition voters, not just their leaders,
are part of a systematic campaign of terror directed against anyone who may
have voted against Mr Mugabe.

Mr Mugabe has repeatedly warned that he
will never give up power voluntarily and that if he loses the run-off it
will mean war. Therefore, it is useless to indulge in vague talk about
claims and counterclaims of violence, or to hope that more monitors can make
much difference in an election that promises to be no more free than the
recent referendum in Burma. What is needed is the strongest possible
denunciation of the Mugabe terror state, especially by African leaders,
backed up by every possible pressure for Mr Mugabe and his military henchmen
to resign. Mr Annan's comments appear to fall far short of this.

Mr
Annan's suggestion for reconciliation is also premature. The example of
South Africa showed that this could only take place after the apartheid
government had left power. However, if he intended by the use of this word
to suggest a comparison between the brutal white rule in South Africa and
the equally brutal rule of the Mugabe dictatorship, then this would be a
powerful indictment indeed; one that the entire world should
welcome.

Mugabe tells supporters when he'll retire

News24

20/06/2008 07:14 -
(SA)

Johannesburg - Zimbabwean president Robert Mugabe said he will
only retire from office when he is satisfied that the land is "truly and
safely" in the hands of the black majority, Zimbabwe's Herald Online
reported on Friday.

Addressing thousands of Zanu-PF supporters at two
rallies in Matabeleland North, Mugabe, who is Zanu-PF's candidate in the
run-off election scheduled for June 27, said he had to ensure the legacy of
returning land stolen by the British settlers to its rightful owners - the
black people - before entertaining any thoughts of relinquishing
power.

He said he could not allow sell-outs to mortgage the country to
Britain.

"Once I am sure this legacy (of returning land to
the blacks) is truly in your hands, people are empowered, then I can say:
Aha, the work is now done."

Mugabe said blood was shed for the
liberation of the country from colonial bondage and, therefore, there was no
way in which revolutionaries like himself could let Zimbabwe slip back into
the hands of the British, who maimed and killed the indigenous population
for resisting colonisation.

"I walk on this land. I farm on this land. I
sleep on it. My house is built on it. Our children play on it. Our schools
are built on it.

"If I take a handful of sand from the ground, to me that
is my treasure, it's from my land. It's not from Britain. It's Zimbabwean
soil."

Mugabe said June 27 2008 was an opportunity for all patriotic
Zimbabweans to reject attempts to recolonise the country.

Yes, a
dictator who uses starvation to scatter and kill his own people making an
appearance at an international conference devoted to raising food and
feeding the hungry is an obscenity - though I add, without cynicism, that
the situation isn't all that unusual. Petty tyrants, terrorist enablers and
tribal killers cluster about the wine and cheese smorgasbords of
international community fetes and summits.

At these forums, they
blame the United States for virtually anything and everything.
Anti-Americanism - or in Mr. Mugabe's case, a worn-out '60s-style
"anti-imperialist" pitch aimed at Great Britain - provide media camouflage
for their hideous genocides and cruel depredations.

Mr. Mugabe, a classic
Marxist rebel leader, plays this game quite well. Toppling Southern
Rhodesia's white dictatorship made him a cult hero. The left-leaning
internationalists gave a pass to Mr. Mugabe's mass murder in Zimbabwe's
Matebele land. That brutal campaign of the early 1980s, against his former
anti-colonial allies, included imported North Korean
mercenary-advisers.

But his obscenities are catching up with him. His
greatest obscenity is his war on his own impoverished nation. Mr. Mugabe's
tyranny has savaged Zimbabwe, making the country yet another tragic example
of a nation brutalized by its own government. Zimbabwe is blessed with rich
farmland and should be an agricultural breadbasket. It was a breadbasket,
until Mr. Mugabe's "land redistribution" and "farm policies" turned it into
a starving basket case.

Once a major regional food producer, today a
substantial number of Zimbabweans go hungry or flee. Since 2000, an
estimated 3 million Zimbabweans have escaped to neighboring nations, with
South Africa a preferred destination.

Zimbabwe's economy is a string
of obscene numbers. In late 2007, the Zimbabwean government said the annual
inflation rate was 7,600 percent. The International Monetary Fund forecast
100,000 percent. A 2008 estimate said 200,000 percent. These statistical
differences are meaningless - the currency is a fraud, another form of
governmental theft.

In early 2008, Zimbabwe's estimated unemployment rate
ran from 50 percent to 80 percent. Whatever the number, Zimbabwe's once
flourishing tourist industry has all but disappeared. In 1999, Zimbabwe was
visited by 1.4 million tourists. In 2007, only a handful came. Commercial
agriculture jobs once boosted Zimbabwe's economy. Since 2000, Zimbabwe has
lost between 250,000 and 400,000 agricultural jobs.

Mr. Mugabe's
latest trail of obscenities involves election theft, violent intimidation
and more murder. Under Mr. Mugabe, elections have been little more than
window dressing for his cult control of the nation. His use of the police,
military and loyal militias, such as the Zimbabwe National Liberation War
Veterans Association, has kept opponents intimidated and citizens
terrorized.

However, his obscene economy and brutal arrogance has led to
a loss of grass-roots support in his own once-pliant political organization,
the ZANU-PF.

Zimbabwe's March 29 presidential election confirmed
this. Election observers believe that if the opposition Movement for
Democratic Change (MDC) candidate, Morgan Tsvangirai, did not win the March
vote outright, he came close. The MDC claimed victory. Under any
circumstances, Mr. Mugabe's electoral window dressing fell, and with it fell
the last media facade masking his tyranny.

Mr. Mugabe has
manufactured a runoff election, scheduled for June 27, pitting him against
Mr. Tsvangirai. The "war veterans" are out with their clubs and knives. The
MDC claims at least 40 of its supporters have been killed since March 29.
Moreover, they claim Mr. Mugabe is plotting to assassinate Mr. Tsvangirai.
Mr. Mugabe's police have repeatedly detained and harassed Mr.
Tsvangirai.

Nobel Prize winner former Archbishop Desmond Tutu of South
Africa has called for international peacekeepers to ensure the elections are
fair and safe. It may not matter. This week, Mr. Mugabe said he will ignore
the election results. Yet the political heat on Mr. Mugabe is increasing -
primarily from Europe and the United States.

The real disappointment
is South Africa President Thabo Mbeki. Mr. Mbeki was supposed to help
"mediate" Zimbabwe's political crisis, but his mediation has been a biased
farce in favor of Mr. Mugabe.

Why? "Old radical solidarity" is one
possible reason. Mr. Mbeki's memories of anti-colonial struggle produce a
soft spot for Mr. Mugabe. Pray that it's blarney, but this kind of embedded,
selfish bitterness from the political past does scar the present and damage
the future. True or not, Mr. Mugabe continues to kill and steal, with
obscene impunity.

Where is spirit of Mandela in Zimbabwe's hour of
need?

Dispatch online

2008/06/20

INSIGHT

David
Dalling

IT IS abundantly clear that despite all the odds, the Movement
for Democratic Change won both the parliamentary election and the presidency
hands down, but that Morgan Tsvangirai was cheated out of taking office and
is being forced to fight a runoff election on June 27.

Just prior to
the March 29 election, Tsvangirai was arrested and beaten virtually to a
pulp by the police, probably on the instructions of Robert Mugabe,
Zimbabwe's megalomaniac and criminally violent President.

No charges were
brought against Tsvangirai.

Suing for damages would be futile, given the
supine Mugabe-appointed Supreme Court.

Since then, Zimbabweans have
been subjected to a further reign of terror and suppression.

Most
recently, the MDC's secretary- general, Tendai Biti, was arrested and
charged with treason - which is punishable by death.

International
calls for his release have fallen on deaf ears.

Over 50 MDC workers have
been murdered and hundreds have been injured. Some have had their hands
chopped off for voting against Mugabe.

The injured are being denied
access to government hospitals and are filling up the private
clinics.

The Zimbabwean Electoral Commission has been re-shaped and
cleaned out of its past members, who have been replaced by military
personnel who, no doubt, when the African observers finally arrive, will
leave their uniforms at home and don suits, thus creating a more benign
impression.

Meanwhile, ordinary Zimbabweans are starving. Over three
million - perhaps considerably more - have escaped into South Africa and
have involuntarily become a destabilising influence, both here and in other
abutting countries, where poverty and competition for already scarce jobs
and resources are already a problem.

The so-called xenophobic attacks
bear witness to this.

Inflation in Zimbabwe has reached astronomic
heights, and not even a loaf of bread is affordable.

This while
Mugabe and his shopaholic wife, Grace, continue to live and travel the world
in luxury.

There is no doubt in my mind that Mugabe's Zanu-PF party will
steal the presidency again on June 27, and that Africa will sit back and do
nothing about it. Britain, the United States and the European Union will be
blamed for Zimbabwe's economic woes, more people will starve or be killed
and even more millions will pour over our borders.

The Southern
African Development Community and that expensive white elephant, the African
Union, will sit tight, their arms folded.

After all, South Africa has
gone out of its way to give succour to the Zanu-PF goons who bully
Zimbabweans into submission.

The fine principles enshrined in the African
National Congress's constitution and that of our country have long been
thrown overboard, as President Thabo Mbeki travels to Zimbabwe, shuns the
opposition and fondly holds and strokes the bloodsoaked hand of
Mugabe.

One wants to throw up.

While Zimbabwe is at this very time
physically being cowed into submission, no foreign observers are there to
report the scene.

Most of the world press is barred, and Zimbabwe is
beginning to look more like Burma each day.

Cynically, while Mugabe
was speaking at the World Food Crisis Meeting in Rome, the Zimbabwe
government almost simultaneously closed down the life-saving work of
international food agencies in their country.

Tsvangirai was once again
arrested for no reason and prevented from getting to an election
rally.

What upsets me greatly is that so few ANC leaders have been
prepared to speak up.

Not Finance Minister Trevor Manuel, not Defence
Minister Mosiuoa Lekota (who no longer has anything to lose), and only
belatedly the mostly invisible Mbeki.

Despite his discussions last
week with representatives of the MDC and Mugabe's Zanu-PF party on the
possibility of creating a government of national unity, South Africa's Local
Government Minister, Sydney Mufamadi, has also been silent.

This is a
public disgrace, and it reflects horrendously on the integrity of our
country and our government.

Where is the spirit and guts of a
Mandela?

Where are our leaders?

Why have they been so silent? Or
do they, like Zanu-PF, support the insane depravity being perpetrated on the
hapless and helpless citizens of Zimbabwe?

Surely it is time for
the many honest ANC members of integrity to shift away from the band of
Travelgate pleabargainers and jump off this leaderless, rudderless and
increasingly immoral ship, the ANC.

David Dalling is a former
long-serving Member of Parliament and Parliamentary Whip